The Green Between My Teeth

The pool deck at Jason's house looked like something out of a teen movie — all tanned limbs and splashing water and someone's Bluetooth speaker bumping something that sounded expensive. I stood by the snack table clutching my solo cup like it was a lifeline, my orange board shorts feeling way too loud against everyone's muted aesthetic pastels.

"Yo Marcus, you gonna swim or just supervise the chip bowl?"

Maya. Of course she'd notice me standing there doing nothing. We'd been best friend adjacent since kindergarten, close enough to wave in halls but not close enough to text first. Her hair was wet and she had this confidence thing going on that made my chest feel weird.

"Yeah, just, uh, warming up," I managed. Smooth.

I reached for a spinach artichake dip because apparently self-sabotage was my brand today. The moment was going fine until Maya laughed at something Jason said, her nose scrunching up like it always did when she actually thought something was funny, and I decided right then that THIS was my chance to finally talk to her for real.

I took a bite of the dip. A BIG bite.

"Hey Maya," I said, stepping toward her with what I thought was casual cool. "Having fun?"

She turned. Stared at my face. Then her eyes widened and I watched in horror as her hand flew to her mouth to suppress a laugh.

"Marcus, you have—" She pointed. "There's spinach. Like, a LOT of spinach. In your teeth."

I could feel my face burning hotter than the July sun. "Oh. Cool. Great."

Before I could properly die of embarrassment, Jason's cat — this ancient calico that hated everyone — suddenly came BOLTING out from under the deck chairs, SCREECHING like a demon, and LEAPT straight into the pool.

Chaos erupted. Someone screamed. Jason jumped in after it fully clothed. Maya doubled over laughing for real this time, tears streaming down her face, and I stood there with spinach in my teeth watching a cat paddle furiously toward the shallow end like it had personal beef with water.

"Your cat," Maya gasped, "just SUMMONED US."

"Bro," I said, and then we were both laughing, the weird kind where your stomach hurts and you can't breathe, and the spinach incident suddenly mattered less because we were both witnesses to the most unhinged thing that had ever happened at a middle school pool party.

Later, after the cat had been rescued and dried off and Jason's parents had been apologized to approximately forty times, Maya found me by the snacks again.

"You still got a little—" She gestured to her own teeth.

I wiped it away with my thumb. "Thanks."

"Wanna get smoothies tomorrow?" she asked, casual as anything. "Like, as a thing that friends do."

"Yeah," I said, trying to play it cooler than I felt. "Friends. Smoothies. Sounds good."

And maybe I imagined it, but I swore she smiled a little extra before walking away. The cat shot me a look from its chair by the pool that said don't screw this up, kid.

I didn't. Well, not immediately anyway.